The P7100 is primarily aimed at consumers who don’t want to haul a full size SLR but still want the manual controls. The camera sports an external hot shoe, a flip-out LCD screen, and retains the ability to store RAW images.
Inside the P7100 sports a 9.98 MP, 1/1.7” CCD sensor with an ISO range of 100 to 6400. Behind the sensor is the refined EXPEED C2 image processing, meant to deliver better resolution across ISO settings. The noise reduction as been tweaked to protect fine detail in the pictures and the purple fringing reported by some P7000 users has been reduced.
Everything is faster in the P7100. The RAW and RAW+JPG is much improved in the newer model, along with faster start up times. The shutter lag has been trimmed from 300ms to 200ms, and the AF system is faster, as is the transition between playback and shooting.
Another nice feature is the ability to lock exposure in video mode, something video editors trying to set color correction will appreciate. The only unfortunate development is the switch to 30 fps instead of 24 fps in the P7000. Anyone who thinks 24fps to 30fps is an improvement probably doesn’t do a lot of video work.
Price point for the P7100 is expected to be around $499, shipping in September.